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Overloading the Machine

Quick Meals

I think every vegan needs some suggestions for quick and easy meals to
prepare. Making things in larger quantities in order to last for a few days is
a good idea. But sometimes I just don't get around to doing that. So here are
some of the meals I make a lot when I don't want to spend much time
cooking.

They are mainly for the vegan bachelor or bachelorette. Were I cooking for
someone else, I'd sure try and make some better food than this.

Beans and rice

There are so many possible variations on this. In general I try to use dried
beans, but for doing quick meals that isn't practical.

Cooking rice does take an hour, so whenever I do cook it I make more than I
need. It's not the kind of thing you have to babysit, so a lot of times I will
put some rice on and then eat some snacks to keep me happy until it's done. Any
of these things can be uses for leftover rice from restaurants. When I'm
feeling really sneaky (and lazy), I order extra rice to use later.

My current favorite rice is sweet brown rice. Short grained, sticky, and
sweet. Takes 50-55 minutes to cook, with the ratio of one cup rice to two cups
water. I always add at least a tablespoon of vegetable oil as well.

Usually I just drain a can of black beans, heat it up, mix it with the
cooked rice, and add a lot of Tabasco sauce.

Variations

Add salsa to the beans while they heat. Usually around 1/4 cup, but depends
how dry or soupy you want it.

Add a small can of diced green chiles to the beans while they heat.

Add an undrained can of candied yams (Bruce's!) in syrup to the beans while
they heat. Cut the yam chunks up a bit with a fork.

Add some canned nacho jalapenos to the beans while they heat.

Add about a half can of corn kernels, drained, to the beans while they heat.

Top with guacamole or avocado slices. Avocados are too expensive for me to
buy many of them, but sometimes. Guacamole takes time to prepare, but there
are some OK store-bought kinds that work for this.

Untested

Add some canned pineapple chunks (probably around a half can) and a few
tablespoons of their juice to the beans while they heat.

Beans and Franks

I make this with one can of Heinz Baked Beans (make sure they are vegetarian),
and two or there veggie hot dogs sliced up. I think Yves are the best. Just mix
it all up on the stove and heat, covered. I like to add a lot of Tabasco
sometimes.

There are 80 million power drills in America that are used an average
of 13 minutes. Does everyone really need their own drill?